Thursday, August 22, 2013
Metal Church
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Judas Priest
Well this one's a doozy. In a nutshell, Judas Priest are one of the single most important metal bands of all time, second only to maybe Black Sabbath. And that is a huge maybe. On top of being enormously influential, they have gone through a number of stylistic changes while still sounding completely like themselves. As for the guitar players, Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing are the most important tag-team in metal's evolution, with the two completely re-writing the book on heavy metal guitar playing over and over again. Rob Halford is in turn one of metal's most talented and charismatic singers. It's worth mentioning that he's gay, just because going back through some of Priest's lyrics to find the not-so-subtle hints about his sexual orientation is actually really fun and kind of hilarious. On a personal note, Judas Priest is my all-time favorite band in any genre of music, so it's only appropriate that this is the first post on Heavier Than Time.
An unassuming debut for one of the most daring heavy metal bands to ever exist. Priest had spent six years slugging it out in Birmingham clubs like Henry's and Mothers before recording this album, but the songs certainly don't give off that "honed onstage" feel. The title track shows off a driving hard rock sound that Deep Purple had already done better a couple years earlier, and unfortunately that's one of the best songs here. The 'Winter' trilogy that follows is random, unfocused and a total waste of space. as is the closing track, 'Caviar and Meths'. Besides those four "songs" though, everything else on Rocka Rolla is actually mildly enjoyable, even if the material isn't extremely exceptional. There were hints of better things to come on this album though. The maniacal screams of singer Rob Halford made their first appearance on the bloated 'Run of the Mill', and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing already proved themselves to be adept players on 'One for the Road', a track that has actually aged pretty well. Rocka Rolla's really only for Priest nutjobs like myself or for hardcore completists though, everyone else is encouraged to begin with album number two.
Rocka Rolla suffered from a pretty lame and wimpy production from Rodger Bain, who rather ironically also produced one of the heaviest albums ever made, Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. The band later blamed Bain for trimming many of their longer and heavier tracks. Regardless of who was to blame, two years of touring followed, and the band, now a bit wiser about when to listen to a producer, hit the studio once again.
"What the fuck just happened" was probably what kids who listened to this album for the first time in '76 thought. Back then, heavy metal meant bluesy, loud, distorted hard rock. Even Black Sabbath had roots in the blues, as did Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Sad Wings of Destiny was perhaps the first purely heavy metal album- there was no blues, no stolen Clapton solos, no worry-free good times and no boring '70s rock riffs. The quick chugging sound that Tipton and Downing laid claim to on the verses of 'Tyrant' would end up being jacked by nearly every single heavy metal band that would follow, and the crashing finish of 'Genocide' was one of the most massive sounds to exist in metal at the time. Tipton and Downing even debut heavy metal's first ever dual guitar solo on 'Tyrant', as the two play a harmonized rapid fire run for the second solo section. There were faster songs before, and there were certainly heavier riffs before, but no song before this one had ever been so metal. The piece de resistance of Sad Wings of Destiny is easily 'Victim of Changes' though. This song was the most ambitious heavy metal track written in '76, and more or less invented progressive metal on the spot, with its sections all being completely fleshed out and taken to their fullest extents of depth, impact and sheer heaviness. Downing's the star here, going for Hendrix-inspired feedback and wah-wah freakouts during his solo instead of the Clapton licks that everyone else was overusing in '76. Halford in turn gives a virtuousic performance, showing that he was capable of some insane screaming, though he wasn't the legendary "Metal God" quite yet. Contrasting against the epic 'Victim', 'The Ripper' and 'Deceiver' are two short tracks that showed that Priest had really learned how to trim the fat from their songs, with the latter taking the galloping chug that Tony Iommi invented on "Children of the Grave" to the next level of heaviness.
Like all of Priest's '70s albums, the production sounds pretty dated by today's standards, leaving some modern listeners perhaps questioning Sad Wings' relevance. In 1976 the track order was ambiguous due to some poor packaging, but now it's confirmed that the album was meant to begin with "Prelude" and "Tyrant" and end with "Deceiver"- trying to imagine a youngster listening to "Tyrant" or "Victim of Changes" with no musical precedent in 1976 is kind of mind-boggling. After this album was released, Priest severed ties with their original label, Gull Records, and signed with Columbia Records. Consequently, they lost the rights to both Sad Wings of Destiny and Rocka Rolla until very recently, when both were reissued as apart of The Complete Albums Collection box set in 2011.
Priest's first album on Columbia Records continued the wild experimentation of Sad Wings of Destiny, but with less consistently outstanding results. 'Sinner' was another winning prog-metal monolith though, with Downing once again getting to showcase his out of control atonal soloing. There was a new level of aggression here on Sin After Sin, perhaps thanks to yet another one-time drummer, a young Simon Philips. Dude adds some badass double bass throughout the album; his work on 'Let Us Prey/Call For the Priest', perhaps the fastest heavy metal song written by '77, surely helped sow the seeds for thrash metal. "Diamonds and Rust", a folk song by Joan Baez, is given a serious shot of adrenaline from the Priest- Iron Maiden's signature "galloping rhythm" was first heard on this track, albeit with weak production from Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. The closing track, 'Dissident Aggressor', is the real gem on Sin After Sin though. The slow, lurching buildup to Halford's blood-curdling scream announces the single most devastating metal song to have been laid to tape by 1977, and a wild-eyed solo from Downing, one of the best of his career, provided inspiration to the likes of Kerry King from Slayer and Mille Petrozza from Kreator, guitarists that didn't possess the most dexterity or speed, but wanted to create terrifying sounds with their instruments anyway. The less heavy tracks on Sin After Sin don't work nearly as well as their counterparts from Sad Wings of Destiny unfortunately. 'Here Come the Tears' never really goes anywhere despite good performances from Halford and Tipton, and 'Last Rose of Summer' is plain boring, lacking the gothic atmosphere that 'Epitaph' totally nailed. This album was still an important stepping stone in heavy metal's evolution though, even if it wasn't the massive quantum leap that Sad Wings of Destiny was. 'Dissident Aggressor' alone will still tear your head off, even in spite of the bland production.
How does one detect a total poser? If someone ever claims to like '70s Priest and proceeds to call this album "Stained Glass". And rant over. Stained Class was quite simply the pinnacle of Judas Priest's trailblazing '70s career. Awesome new drummer Les Binks announces his arrival with a badass intro solo to 'Exciter', a track that I'd readily call the first thrash metal song ever written. Binks' rolling double bass drums and 2/4 beats, the rapidly picked single note chugs and white hot solos from Tipton and Downing, and high pitched wailing from Halford made for a song that was years ahead of its time. Halford took on a new higher register of singing for this album, largely abandoning his lower voiced crooning; he was still trying to find his signature sound, but the one he employed on Stained Class proved to be strong. The songwriting was tightened up, the riffs became even heavier, and the gothic sound first heard on Sad Wings of Destiny was back. Barring 'Exciter', Priest wasn't doing much new this time around, but they were perfecting the sounds heard on their prior two records. The lone ballad, 'Beyond the Realms of Death', combined the best elements of their slower and more progressive songs, and the result was a track with some amazing dynamics, emotional lyrics and a stellar performance from Halford and two absolutely outstanding solos from Tipton and Downing. "Better By You, Better Than Me" a Spooky Tooth cover, also was given a way heavy, yet very creepy makeover thanks to massive riffing and drumming, and those spooky (pun intended) clean guitars during the choruses. Really, there isn't a less than great song on Stained Class, and it's the studio album that best represents the pioneering vision of Judas Priest in the 1970s. Sad Wings of Destiny and Sin After Sin hastily re-wrote definition of heavy metal- Stained Class fixed the typos and added the period.
Normally when a band makes an album like Hell Bent for Leather, "sellout" is the first label they'll receive. Given that Priest didn't really become well known for their earlier and far more daring releases, I guess they got let off the hook for this one. Halford's taken on this odd gruff tone that sounds a bit forced, as are his dumbed down lyrics. The simplification and tightening of their prior sound actually gives some focus to the songs though, and the quality of Priest's songwriting remains top-notch. Tipton really came into his own as a soloist on Hell Bent for Leather as well, delivering half a minute of shred on 'Delivering the Goods' and incorporating the then brand new two-hand tapping technique on the scorching 'Hell Bent for Leather'. The latter track is an timeless heavy metal classic, and an early prototype for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that came about just a year or two later. Priest's final '70s ballad, 'Before the Dawn', is sadly pretty forgettable, but it's followed by the huge, monstrous crawl of 'Evil Fantasies'. Once again Priest do a left-field cover, this time it's 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)' by Fleetwood Mac. This song features one of Tipton and Downing's all-time best trade-off solos, and few other Priest tracks better define the core sound of the band than this one. It's worth noting that Hell Bent for Leather began Priest's tradition of pandering to a target audience. When any other band tries that, the result is usually humiliating failure. Not Judas Priest though, for they were such astonishing masters of their craft that they could knock out a quality "dumbed down" record in their sleep. That being said, they did write an absolute misfire in 'Take On the World', a song that plain stinks and sounds contrived as hell. This was a good album with a small number of really great tracks, but it was really a work in progress towards the masterpiece that would soon come. Hell Bent for Leather also proved to be a sonic template for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which took the accessible metal sound heard here to faster and more lethal levels.
The album was originally released as Killing Machine in the U.K. in '78. Apparently the title was a bit violent for America, so it was changed to Hell Bent for Leather when it was released domestically in '79. This proved to be a bit serendipitous, as the band took on their signature leather and studs look around this time. Many thought that the band was drawing inspiration from American bikers- clearly no one ever saw Rob Halford walking out of an S&M shop as he sometimes did at the time.
Shit just got real. Remember how all of Priest's '70s albums suffered from pretty wimpy production? Well, thirteen of those songs are given a razor-sharp tune up on Judas Priest's all-time greatest album, Unleashed in the East. This was "Colonel" Tom Allom's first shot at producing Priest and dude knocked it out of the park. Every song is much faster and more aggressive than its original version, with the tracks from Sad Wings of Destiny receiving the biggest improvement. The full harmonized intro to 'Victim of Changes' is finally heard, and Halford gives some of the most jaw-dropping screams of his entire career, resulting in him hilariously cracking his voice as he thanks the audience at the end of the song. Tipton and Downing's guitars are finally given the metallic tone they've so desperately needed, and Les Binks offers definitive drum performances on every one of these songs. To be honest, every one of these tracks are definitive compared to their studio counterparts. Halford's at the top of his game here, besting every one of his prior performances, and every song just sounds so much more alive and kinetic. Apparently Halford re-recorded all of his vocals for this "live" record in the studio, but honestly who gives a shit? His new melody at the end of 'Green Manalishi' is beyond awesome, as is his scream at the beginning of 'The Ripper'. Even 'Starbreaker', a track that was a bit of a forgettable rocker on Sin After Sin, becomes fiery barn-burner thanks to the inspired performances and the killer production (I also dig the short drum solo in the middle of the track). 'Diamonds and Rust' receives a similar treatment, becoming the galloping metal beast that its studio counterpart only hinted at. Unleashed in the East is the perfect showcase for these amazing songs, many of which were the first of their kind in heavy metal history. If every single '70s Judas Priest song was given this sonic treatment, a whole ton of '80s metal bands would have been put out of work.
Like Hell Bent for Leather, there is a bit of discrepancy with the title of Unleashed in the East. It was released at Priest in the East in Japan, where it was also packaged with a bonus four-track EP. The three tracks from Hell Bent for Leather offered on the EP utterly annihilate their comparatively limp studio versions, as does the aforementioned 'Starbreaker', the last track on the EP. The current CD issue of Unleashed in the East has all of these tracks on the disc, so you can either pick that up or be a lunatic and hunt down the Japanese Priest in the East LP like I did. After Priest finished touring in support of Hell Bent for Leather, drummer Les Binks left the band, claiming that he wasn't interested in the creative direction that Priest were going in. Notice that Binks is rather mysteriously missing from the cover photo of Unleashed in the East!
"Pounding the world, like a battering ram!"- and thus the Metal God was born. On British Steel Rob Halford finally found his voice, a raspy and commanding roar that would be one of the coolest sounds ever associated with heavy metal. The "Metal God" moniker would come from the melodic and rocking 'Metal Gods', which still has one of the memorable, yet most simple chorus riffs ever. British Steel is quite simply a masterwork of heavy metal music. Priest made sure to rectify the issues from Hell Bent for Leather here: the hooks are way catchier without being obviously poppy, the guitars are given a spit-shined polish, the drums a tight and snappy punch, and the songs are trimmed down to the bare essentials. 'Rapid Fire' is the perfect example of Priest taking the speed of some of their earlier tracks, but making the attack leaner and more concise. The somewhat self-indulgent solos of their longer and more experimental tracks are completely gone; instead, we get one of Tipton and Downing's greatest guitar duels in 'Rapid Fire', or Tipton's short and totally singable break in 'Living After Midnight'. That track and 'Breaking the Law' both boast anthemic riffs that you can actually vocalize and sing (ultimately Tipton and Downing's greatest strength as writers). That melodic accessibility was something that was missing from Priest's '70s records. 'United' is the only song here that falls flat on its face, and even then it's a whole lot better than the eternally lame 'Take On the World'. New drummer Dave Holland is far less virtuosic and flashy than Les Binks, but his time-keeping is impeccable and he ably gets the job done. Holland would end up holding Priest back later on, but for now he was exactly the kind of drummer they needed. If Hell Bent for Leather provided the blueprint for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, British Steel executed the design with deadly efficiency and precision. In my opinion, just about every NWOBHM album stands in the tall shadow of British Steel. In a way, this album's high quality is a bit ironic, as it was made by the band with commercial success in mind. It's a far less musically complex work than any of their legendary '70s albums, but British Steel ultimately sounds more like what we think of as "heavy metal music" today far more than those records. Catchy and headbangable riffs, loud and distorted guitars, powerful vocals and driving rhythms are the features that British Steel continues to showcase, and those traits will continue to define heavy metal forever.
British Steel became very associated with the bands of NWOBHM movement, but really Judas Priest had completely pioneered the style of music that those acts played. Somehow, Priest ended up having to be peers to the bands that their own music begat instead of being offered the recognition that they deserved. The tracklisting also changed up for the U.S. release, opening up with 'Breaking the Law' instead of 'Rapid Fire'. In a commercial sense, it may have been a smarter move to open with 'Breaking the Law', but I'd rather kick this album off with the face-melting fury of 'Rapid Fire' any day of the week. Judas Priest also started to film music videos around this time, including the hilarious and over the top 'Breaking the Law' video.
Not too sure what the guys were thinking with this one. On British Steel they upped the aggression while sharpening the songwriting to great success, but on Point of Entry the band nearly sounds boring. It's almost like they regressed back to the Hell Bent for Leather mentality, but without the unbridled bursts of metal fury that we saw from that album. There are no real breakout anthems to speak of here either, nor are there any scorchers- that balance is what British Steel nailed so well, but what Point of Entry is sorely missing. There are a small number of really top-notch tracks here though, including 'Heading Out to the Highway' and 'Desert Plains'. They weren't the heaviest or the catchiest Priest songs out there, but they're still a lot of fun to listen to. In the end, there really isn't a whole lot to say about Point of Entry. Halford's still in prime form, and the band avoids writing any stinkers, which is rather nice given what happened in much later years.
Once again, there was a bit of discrepancy with the U.S. and international versions of this album, this time it was with the cover artwork. The image of the highway was the cover for the U.S. release, while the other pointy thing was the cover everywhere else. The album was apparently regarded as a bit of a disappointment upon its release, but it's aged rather well. It's enjoyable and doesn't embarrass itself, it's just not a particularly exciting listen. At least 'Heading Out to the Highway' and 'Solar Angels' are absolutely essential listening for every Priest fan though, so maybe the iTunes generation will have more to gain from 'Point of Entry' than the older fans who grew up with the whole record.
This album is metal as fuck. Come on, just look at that album cover! For the rest of their careers, Priest made it a habit of responding to the will of their desired audience, and Screaming for Vengeance was no exception. Point of Entry was boring and disappointing? Give 'em the most metal album they'll ever hear. 'The Hellion' alone contains more explosive energy than anything from Point of Entry and when it transitions into 'Electric Eye' you can't help but go insane. That one-two punch is one of Judas Priest's finest moments. Priest also returned to the great hooks of British Steel with huge choruses on 'Bloodstone', 'Devils Child' and 'Fever', but the aggression was back in a big way on this great album. The title track was one of Priest's most brutal efforts yet, with Halford holding absolutely nothing back with his shredded wailing. The guy offers his most diverse, yet also most consistent vocals yet on Screaming for Vengeance and the next few years would be his absolute best. Tipton also shines on this album with quite a few great solos, including one of his best on 'Electric Eye' and a stellar one on 'You've Got Another Thing Coming'. The latter track was Judas Priest's most successful song, and the one that broke them in America. It took the signature chug that Tipton and Downing perfected all the way back on 'Tyrant' and made it into an accessible, yet still very pounding track. '(Take These) Chains', a song actually written by some guy named Bob Halligan Jr., is an unadulterated pleasure; it's super catchy, Halford turns in a stellar vocal performance and Tipton tears out a truly great solo. The only dud here is 'Pain and Pleasure', which plods along at a snails pace. Every other track sounds so full of life and energy though, and that alone made Screaming for Vengeance a massive triumph compared to the stagnant Point of Entry.
Like British Steel before it, this album was another huge stepping stone in making heavy metal music accessible to the masses. Screaming sounds like a much more natural progression from Priest's '70s albums to my ears though- it sounds like Priest were listening to the what the NWOBHM bands were doing and realized that they needed to beat them at their own game, a game that they ironically had written the rules for on Stained Class, Hell Bent for Leather and Sad Wings of Destiny. Screaming for Vengeance is my favorite studio album by Judas Priest and I said before, it's seriously metal as fuck. Judas Priest weren't exactly masters of the music video format, but they did have a habit of being unintentionally hilarious. Check out how the band blows up some guy's head with the sheer power of metal in the video for 'You've Got Another Thing Coming'.
Oh hell yes. Defenders took the successful formula that Screaming for Vengeance found success with and took every element of it to the next extreme. 'Freewheel Burning' is a high-energy number that shows Halford tearing his lungs apart with an awesome performance (not to mention, is Tipton's solo break insanely cool or what?), and 'The Sentinel' is a towering monolith of heaviness. The latter track is just one of the most metal songs Priest ever wrote. 'Rock Hard, Ride Free' is the huge anthem that 'United' and 'Take On the World' wished they could be, and 'Jawbreaker' just rages with boiling fury. Really, I'd call the first half of the album Judas Priest's all-time best album side. Tom Allom gave the album an eighties sheen that is in one way really dated, but also adds an odd kind of atmosphere to the songs. The heavily reverbed guitar and vocals in the bridge of 'The Sentinel' is the kind of thing that really worked well thanks to Allom's production, but the artificial gated snare drum sound wasn't. Side two of Defenders is nowhere near as great as the first half, with only 'Some Heads Are Gonna Roll' (another Bob Halligan Jr. penned track) offering some good fun with its hard rock stomp. Maybe it's not as consistent a listen as Screaming for Vengeance, but I'll be damned if side one of Defenders of the Faith isn't the best thing Judas Priest ever did- it's probably the batch of songs that I return to most whenever I want to put some Priest on.
At the time of its release, Defenders of the Faith was given some flak for repeating the Screaming for Vengeance formula, but now it's considered a classic slab of metal by most folks I know. This was the kind of album that might have been disappointing on vinyl (one amazing side, one kind of "meh" side), and just awesome on digital formats, where half the album is made up of some of Judas Priest's most badass songs ever.
Uh-oh, it's the dreaded '80s sellout album! You've probably heard nothing but awful things about Turbo right? How the synths ruin everything, how the songs are trying too hard to appeal to yuppies and how Halford's lyrics suck? Well, I'm here to say that Turbo is in fact, a very good album. The hooks on this album are actually pretty damn solid, and Tipton and Downing haven't forgotten their driving riffing one bit. Halford's also in top form, again offering plenty of his fiery wailing. In fact, it's really only Dave Holland who drops the ball on Turbo, offering nothing but really plain and uninspired drumming, with a stupidly "huge" drum sound from Tom Allom. There are some really catchy songs on here though, with 'Turbo Lover' offering really cool dynamics between its creeping verses and the huge choruses, while 'Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days' is just a ton of dumb fun. "Dumb fun" is the key phrase here- yes, Halford's lyrics were at a low on Turbo, but heavy metal has really produced much worse in the years since, and at least Halford wasn't taking himself too seriously with these words. The closest thing to a serious track on here, 'Out in the Cold', uses the synthesizers to great effect, combining with fat power chords from Tipton and Downing and an uber-catchy chorus. Turbo does require a bit of love for '80s rock music to enjoy, but it isn't anywhere near as horrible as Cold Lake by Celtic Frost, because it isn't attempting to be hair metal (no power ballads here!), and it actually does the '80s hard rock sound really, really well. I guess you can think about Turbo in two ways: a really great '80s hard rock album, or an awful heavy metal album. Being a glass half-full kind of person, my ears have decided on the former. Random note: in 'Parental Guidance' the band finishes the track with a call-back to 'You've Got Another Thing Coming'. Why? I have no idea.
Around this time, Judas Priest took on a look that was a weird cross between their classic leather and studs and the hair metal thing. The band looked really, really stupid to be blunt. They also filmed their most awful (by which I mean, their most funny) music videos yet. Gaze upon the glory of 'Turbo Lover' below.
Even though Turbo was a commercial success, many of Judas Priest's fans condemned the band for what they perceived as "selling out" (folks who were wise to the band's tactics knew that they had already done that on Hell Bent for Leather nearly ten years back). So as was Priest's wont, they tried listening to the fans and made Ram It Down, an album that they claimed was their heaviest yet. Well they failed in that goal, but they did make their most over the top album ever. The title track is more or less power metal- awesome power metal mind you. It's the best song on here, what with its crazy cool Halford screams and a shred-tastic Tipton and Downing duel, their fastest and most pyrotechnic yet. The two went all out with their technical ability on Ram It Down, which made for plenty of ear candy of course. Dave Holland just couldn't supply the drumming needed for the album though, forcing the band to use a drum machine for many tracks, including the balls-out double bass knockout of 'Hard as Iron'. 'Blood Red Skies' was Priest's longest song in a good while, and an attempt from the band to recreate 'Victim of Changes' for the late eighties. Well, surprisingly it actually worked really well. It isn't anywhere near the masterwork that 'Victim' is, but 'Blood Red Skies' is pretty damn epic, with great solos from Tipton and Downing on hand, and downright insane vocals from Halford (That intro? Holy shit). The only thing really bringing the track down are the lame artificial drums. Even the 'Johnny B. Goode' cover is pretty fun in a rather silly and hella '80s way. Yeah there's some filler here, but I'd honestly take Ram It Down over Point of Entry any day.
I think time will continue to grow kinder towards Ram It Down as the years pass. It isn't a Priest classic, but it is nowhere near the disaster that some outlets make it out to be. Dave Holland left the band after the touring for this time. He later was imprisoned for molesting some poor teenage boy. If that really is what happened, dude can burn in hell for all I care. Holland was replaced by a young technical powerhouse named Scott Travis, who had made a name for himself with the L.A. shred band Racer X.
Look at that album cover. There's some guy just riding a motorcycle, right? Wait no, the motorcycle is flying. Wait no, the motorcycle is a dragon. Wait, the wheels are fucking sawblades. Oh and the guy is made of metal, and they're flying over buildings turning to rubble, and dude has wings of steel and his fist is victoriously raised to the sky. Well guess what, you're still not ready to comprehend the expulsion of volcanic fury that Painkiller will unleash upon you. Painkiller will corner you when you're alone, beat the living shit out of you, steal your lunch money and ride away on a flaming dragon-cycle thing while screaming like a frothing banshee. Basically, it might be the most metal album ever made in the history of the genre. Judas Priest once again tried to do right by the fans that had stuck with them, and proceeded to make the most insane, bonkershit album of their career. I've always likened the title track to a '90s update of 'Exciter' from Stained Class and I stand by it- a crazy double bass intro (one that permanently cemented Scott Travis' place in metal history), balls to the wall riffing and apocalyptic lyrics and vocals from Halford all parallel between the two songs. Even Tipton and Downing's solos are in similar places on the two tracks. Tipton's solo is particularly outstanding, and one of his most lyrical and well-composed ever. The intense metal madness just never lets up on Painkiller, and barring 'Battle Hymn', not a single track here is less than awesome as hell. The galloping swing of 'Hell Patrol' and 'One Shot at Glory', and the mach-ten fury of 'Leather Rebel' and 'Metal Meltdown' simply eviscerate everything in their paths. Even a 'A Touch of Evil', a pseudo-ballad, is a massive success thanks to its huge chorus, another ace Tipton solo and some phenomenal vocals from Halford. Chris Tsangarides, who had once served as an engineer on Sad Wings of Destiny, gives Judas Priest a razor-sharp, metal as fuck production job, probably their best ever. Painkiller single-handedly undid whatever failings the band had made in the last few years, and made them heroes to both the army of kids who got into them because of the likes of Metallica and Megadeth, but also the older lifers who had given up on them circa Turbo. Priest didn't just catch up to the competition with this album, they went and mopped the floor with them too.
Painkiller is such an important and beloved album perhaps no other record sounds like it. No other traditional heavy metal album is as fast or intense as it, no power metal album is as badass and undeniably cool as it, and no thrash album features catchier choruses than it. It is quite literally, the heaviest and meanest album that classic metal would ever, and will ever, produce- the Q-point of old school metal music. A touch more in any one area, and you're in another sub-genre entirely. Yes, Painkiller is a contrived record ("Metal Meltdown", really?), however it not only one-upped every other metal band in the game in 1990, it continues to tower tall over the works heavy metal bands produce to this day. What scares me is that I'm very sure that Judas Priest could have easily knocked out an album like this right after Stained Class. Except for Tipton and Downing's new technical abilities and Halford's vocal confidence, there isn't a single thing on Painkiller that the band didn't already invent or feature on their '70s classics. Painkiller also set the precedent for every single metal band wanting to make a return to their roots; calling a metal band's comeback record "their Painkiller" isn't very uncommon these days.
Painkiller was also Rob Halford's last album with Judas Priest for fifteen years- he went on to have a surprisingly solid solo career, even creatively one-upping his former bandmates on a couple occasions. Priest disbanded for a few years, but reformed with a dude named Tim "Ripper" Owens at the mic and recorded a couple of studio albums with him, Jugulator and Demolition. I listened to Jugulator maybe once and found it rather boring, and I've never bothered to give Demolition a shot.
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